Ebay iLok Licence Purchase Issues - A User Story

Community member Michael Boettcher wrote to us to tell us about his experience of Ebay problems when buying iLok licences.

The story begins when Michael received this email from PACE/iLok.

A recent audit of our records discovered that one or more license deposits were made to your iLok account with the User ID: xxxx by mistake. These deposits were not made by the software publisher, but were made by the iLok server when it saw your iLok and didn’t recognize the licenses on the iLok as licenses that already existed in your account. Licenses that were deposited in error to a different iLok account and then resold to you by another iLok user were also discovered in this audit.

We’ve corrected the problem that caused these duplicate license deposits, and as part of the clean up, the duplicate licenses are now set to be returned.

The following licenses that were deposited in error were removed from your account: Eventide, Inc. Anthology 2.01

Our records indicate that one or more of the licenses were purchased from another ilok.com user. Please contact the seller of each license if you wish to obtain a refund. You can find the seller’s name and other information in the email we sent to you on the transfer date. You may also try to seek a refund through any 3rd party broker, such as eBay or PayPal. Please do not contact ilok.com support; unfortunately they will not be able to assist you.

Attempting Contact With The Seller

As you can imagine Michael was alarmed by this so he contacted the Ebay seller. He sent him 4 emails, and this is his final one….

Dear Ivan xxxx, unfortunately you did not reply to my last email. As you surely know, you sold me a fake license (duplicate) which was deleted by iLok 2 weeks ago, please give me my money back until the end of next week, otherwise I have to follow this issue up due to fraud. You transferred the invalid license from the account X on 2013-10-10 The ilok tracking number is 95491432 The PayPal transaction code was xxxx. Please transfer the amount of EUR 431,43 until Friday May 9 2014 to my PayPal account xxxx.

If you have questions, please contact me directly. Best regards, Michael.

Michael continues;

His real name is Ivan xxxx – according to his PayPal account. His eBay name was darlock.core when I bought the license. But he changed his name to core.studio on April 28th. As you can see in his feedback list, I am not the only guy who has problems with the licenses he sold. Other users have reported similar issues

Eventide Help Solve The Problem

Michael reached out to Eventide for help;

However, I contacted Eventide and reported this problem to them, they offered me a new license which I bought for $499 (very nice). I like the Anthology II bundle very much, I use it in every template. Unfortunately iLok did not even warn me, before they removed this license, although the iLok is covered by ZDT, disappointing. As iLok originally duplicated this license due to a bug, it would have been fair, if they had resolved this issue in cooperation with the plug-in manufacturer (in my case Eventide), instead of just deleting it.

Ebay iLok Licence Purchase Issues - Our Advice

We have spoken several times about the dangers of buying used iLok assets on eBay, it’s not always a problem and in many cases you can grab a bargain or indeed get licences such as Pro Tools HD software, all of which are legitimate. However always check the seller feedback and look for any possible issues you may have.

In particular take time to read the seller feedback fully, often people will give great feedback on the day of purchase only to discover the issue weeks later, in this case reading the follow up comments reveals the whole story. Ebay really need to work harder to offer buyer protection, as you will see from this example the seller has maintained his perfect feedback score despite several follow up comments raising issues about the transactions.

We have removed key personal information to respect privacy. If you are the person named in Michael’s story and feel you have been misrepresented then please get in touch and we will happily print your side of the story.

PACE has offered iLok network licences for some time. Avid has announced support for network licensing is coming when they released Pro Tools 2018.1 so they can’t be far away. There are some pretty compelling reasons why licence servers are desirable in education and post facilities but to be useful they have to work in those environments. What are these requirements and does PACE’s implementation for iLok fit? Pro Tools Expert Team member Julian Rodgers is no stranger to Pro Tools in education and offers his opinion.

Exponential Audio recently announced that their Stereo Classic family of plug-ins - PhoenixVerb, R2, M7Control and Excalibur have now been expanded to include machine-based licensing in addition to conventional iLok licensing. We also cover how to change from iLok licensing to machine-based licensing and the pro and cons of machine-based and iLok based licensing.

Avid announced that they plan to offer iLok Network license support back in January 2018, but Sounds In Sync have gone one stage further and are now actually offering iLok Network Licenses for all their own products.

With the release of Pro Tools 2018.1 and iLok Cloud compatibility, we wanted to share in this article, up to date information about iLok Cloud compatible software and plug-ins, as we get it from brands and the community. Please be aware that this article will be updated as the information and compatibility status changes.

The creators of the iLok have asked us to help them conduct this simple survey about the new iLok Cloud. Your feedback will help them determine how to cover their costs while being able to make the iLok Cloud as accessible as possible. As an incentive, ten people who take part in the survey will be chosen at random to receive a free limited edition rose gold iLok.

PACE has updated iLok License Manager ready for the iLok Cloud, but we recommend that you read this article before you update iLok License manager as it can appear as if all your licenses on your iLok have disappeared after updating to iLok License Manager v4.0.0. Don't worry, it's a simple fix and all the details are in this article.

2017 has been our first visit to AES show and it has been an excellent show. the return to New York and scheduling it from Wednesday to Friday, as well as the nature of what the Audio Engineering Society is all about, mean that this show has had a great feel and I have enjoyed this show and its format with the convention and technical paper program making it a well worth the time to come to.

PACE Anti-Piracy, Inc. introduces an entirely new approach to software license protection—iLok Cloud. With iLok Cloud, software publishers can offer their users quick and easy access to their licenses from any computer with an Internet connection. iLok Cloud has the same level of robust security as the current iLok USB smart key, which will remain as an option along with machine-based licenses.

We have been getting reports from several sources that all their iLok protected software has stopped working. The current issue is getting an Authorization Exception message. The simple fix is to make sure you are on the latest version of the iLok License Manager.

Your iLok can be worth more than it's weight in gold if you have a lot of software licenses on it. Looking after it and protecting it should be a high priority but we so often don't give it a second glance. In this article, we are going to look at a number of options to consider.

In this article, we are going to take a look at what you should do if an iLok is broken, lost or stolen. iLoks are incredibly valuable especially when you have a lot of software and plug-in licenses on them and so it is best to look after them carefully but when the unthinkable happens then this is what you should do....

Since 2013, the iLok License Manager software has been at the core of how we manage the iLok licenses, that protect a lot of the software we buy. This article and the video from Avid cover how to use the iLok License Manager software to manage for iLok licenses.

If you have never used an iLok before you will need to buy an iLok, create a free iLok account and transfer the iLok license onto your iLok or computer. Existing Pro Tools owners with Pro Tools 9 and above will have had to set up an iLok account and own an iLok as the Pro Tools Software is protected by an iLok license that is required to be on an iLok license.

New Pro Tools owners and anyone that hasn't got an iLok are advised to follow the instructions in this guide. This guide will also help if you have received an activation code from a software publisher.

Got Pro Tools installed on more than one computer? Find yourself swapping iLok and Waves USB hubs between your systems? Got an Arm / Linux based NAS server? Want to be able to use your Pro Tools anywhere in the world, even if you've left you iLok behind? Alan Sallabank takes a look at the VirtualHere Server.

As you can imagine life at Pro Tools Expert can get complicated when running a Pro Tools computer. We test a lot of gear, that includes hardware and it also includes more than one Mac. Right now I have a Mac Pro running El Capitan and a Mac Mini running Pro Tools on Yosemite for testing which I have to jump between, so I wanted to find a solution that gave me the greatest flexibility with the minimum of pain. A few things needed addressing, screen, keyboard and mouse sharing, audio and MIDI input and also plug-in licences, this is the solution I came up with.

iLok have updated their website to respond to user concerns about getting information. It includes; A cleaner UI and routes to info, Easier to use supports tools, Better store experience and New how-to videos - what is ZDT and TLC

Community member Nathan Ruyle has reached out to us asking if we would share his experiences after buying an iLok protected plug-in on line.. I just had a recent experience with an iLok software license that I thought I would share with you as a cautionary tale about purchasing software from individuals rather than a vendor.

An issue that has not well publicised is that 2nd generation iLoks (iLok2) can have issues with USB3 ports on newer Macs. The fault can sometimes be replicated by unplugging the iLok after successfully using it, then plugging it back in again, after that, the iLok will light up but may not be detected by any application that needs to access it (this is obviously more of a problem for laptop users). The workaround is to plug it in via a certified USB2 hub (even one of the ports on an Apple keyboard will do).

Following a question in Podcast 81 from Michael Lux asking now to get a copy of Pro Tools 11HD software, because he wanted the surround features that are now only available in Pro Tools HD. We talked about how it was possible to buy it secondhand but that the seller would need to put it on an iLok and send the buyer the iLok as Avid have now blocked transferring Pro Tools HD licenses from one iLok account to another. In the podcast we also discussed how the iLok would show up on the buyer’s iLok License Manager.

Did you know you could label your iLok? Take a look at the photo above. On the underside of an iLok is a little button, if you push that in and then pull the translucent collar, the collar will come off to reveal a grey plastic area which you can write on.

To access and manage our iLok licenses users for many years now have used a web browser and a special extension, which worked well, but has been plagued with browser compatibility issues, especially with Firefox which hasn’t been supported for quite a while now, and there have been a number of things we couldn’t do like delete expired demo licenses.

Software protection gets a bad rap on the whole, not just from those trying to find ways to get software by not paying for it, but also from those who have paid for the software but sometimes find themselves locked out of our own software because the protection isn’t working as it should.

In this week’s podcast we had a question from Craig Shimmon about recommendations for how to make iLoks secure in a computer lab environment. I had two suggestions, a diecast box which Neil Hester suggested trashing the lid screws once fitted and screwed to the desk, or a product called a Roklocker. We have had an excellent solution which takes my diecast box idea and moves it on many stages to an excellent solution and so with Neil and Fred’s permission we bring you the Fredbox Mk 2. They also offer an improvement to my our ideas for a Mac Pro.